Monday, August 9

Challenging Marketers: 65 Percent Say Social Media

Almost two-thirds of advertising and marketing executives say it is somewhat to very challenging to keep up with social media trends. And, according to a recent survey conducted by The Creative Group, about 41 percent of advertising and marketing pros say the easiest way to keep up is offline.

This survey is based on more than 500 telephone interviews with approximately 375 marketing executives and 125 advertising agencies. Marketing executives tended to work for companies with 100 or more employees. Agency executives with more than 20 employees.

What Makes Social Media Challenging For Marketing Pros?

A good portion of the challenge has to do with the constant changes taking place in the space, prompting complete tactical changes within the individual networks. To remain competitive, every social network is constantly updating and adding new features. Some are small. Some are complex. And some take social networks down.

Not all of the changes are tied to platform developers. Some networks suffer from their own success. For example, growing popularity with Twitter has led to increasing challenges caused by over saturation. With a random review of the last 20 tweets on my stream, 18 of them were links to other sites and posts.

One second later, the same. One second later, the same. One second later, a hashtag conversation session claimed half.

This doesn't even consider all the new platforms, networks, sites, forums, and apps emerging daily. But what's worse for marketers is this weird standard to continually drive "demand" on the most popular networks at the moment.

For example, marketers on Twitter have to explain why the company account stays flat for a week or two (never mind they are creating relationships on other forums). When url shorteners are accidently flagged as spam on Facebook, people temporarily panic. If two people stop following a feed or Facebook page, they blame it on the last little bit of content shared.

The Most Common Problem With Social Media Programs Today.

We see it daily. Knee jerk, reactive thinking that keeps marketers chasing the latest tactics, tricks, tips, and changes on whatever the most popular social media program is today. And, somewhere along the way, they've created an erroneous expectation that not only do they have to convince people to visit their sites, but they also have to be the most "popular" on every social network they join.

It's possible, but not probable. Some companies, products, and services are better suited for one network than another. But beyond the obvious, the real mistake is to continually case tactics without considering strategy. Strategy has nothing to do with social networks. It has to do with communication.

If there is any irony in the findings from The Creative Group, it's mostly that marketers and agency pros answered their own question. When they want to learn something about online marketing, they aren't looking online. They're looking offline. But even offline, they aren't looking to learn the right stuff.

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Sunday, August 8

Thinking First: Fresh Content Project

If someone asked me right now what is the most important skill set a marketer or public relations professional needs to learn today, it would have nothing and everything to do with the Internet. It's called critical thinking.

Critical thinking is the foundation upon which all of their other decisions will be made. And, more importantly, it will help them realize that everything they thought to be true or learned from a teacher (or speaker) is almost always wrong for the needs and situations they will face once they work in the field.

After all, if circumstances didn't continually bend the rules that came before, we'd still be running vintage duotone ads to peddle other people's junk. Well, all right, maybe that's a bad example. Or maybe not. The campaign I'm linking to might work for Skype, but not for AT&T. And that's the point of several fresh content picks listed below. Think before you believe tip links.

Best Fresh Content In Review, Week of July 26

Sentiment Analysis And The Problem With Computational Analysis.
When Jed Hallam opened a much needed discussion on sentiment analysis, people took notice. And while most of them noticed his follow-up post more, the initial post has much more meat. The slickness of computational analysis — spitting out that a brand has a positive sentiment — based on supposed online mentions, has little to be desired. Without vetting the analysis, you really don't know what is going on with a brand, especially if it happens to be those stacked up with a common name. Think before you report.

• 10 Ways Geolocation Is Changing The World.
Guest posting and cross content posts certainly have advantages. I may have never seen Rob Reed's post on geolocation marketing had it not also appeared on Collective Thoughts. I'm glad it did. Reed, who is also the founder of Max Gladwell, provides ample examples and ideas around mobile or proximity marketing. We've often said that mobile is the future of the Web, but when you look at Reed's post, you realize that geolocation is also what will usher in most brick and mortar to the Internet in any number of creative ways.

Digital case studies: Punch Pizza.
One example you won't find on Reed's list was recently featured by Arik Hanson. Punch Pizza doesn't waste time playing by social media and social network rules. Instead, it looks at the platform and wonders how those various networks might help introduce its pies. Flickr became its coupon corner. It gave away pizzas for football fans when their teams lost. They've also capitalized on current events and hosted several creative contests. What makes this case study great isn't the numbers as much as the thought behind the campaigns. Punch Pizza asks "why not?" instead of "why?"

Brand Crisis Revisited: The Silence Of The Crisis Police.
One of the reasons Bob Conrad resonates is because he doesn't bend to convention, especially when it comes to how to handle a crisis. In this post, he tackles the apology, empathy, and getting ahead of the problem, all three of which have become the pat answers for almost everything in the crisis communication arsenal. When some people critique a crisis going afoul, these are the most mind-numbing of the bunch. It's not that they are wrong, but they deny any semblance of situation analysis. Sometimes the laundry list that is taught is not the right laundry list to employ because the shirts aren't really dirty.

Social Media Spending To Double This Year.
If there is any doubt whether social media is already mainstream for modern marketing, take a look at the report racap from Brian Solis. Almost 20 percent of most marketing budgets are now dedicated to social media. In fact, Internet marketing has taken over the top skill sets that employers are looking for from marketers. They simply cannot exist without some semblance of social media knowledge. It doesn't even matter if you are talking about B2B or B2C businesses. Most companies have finally figured out that they must market where the people are and the people are online.

Want to review more Fresh Content picks? Click on the Fresh Content label or join the Fresh Content Project on Facebook.

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Friday, August 6

Branding: Personal Branding And Reputation Are Illusions

Personal Branding The more people read about personal branding, the more confused they get. It's especially true for public relations professionals and their clients, given how many coach spokespeople to supplant their own name with the company name during interviews.

Geoff Livingston's recent poll on the Livingston blog is a testament to this fact. Almost 60 percent of survey participants could be classified as undecided. And why wouldn't they be? For every post about how to build a personal brand, there are three more that make fun of personal branding.

Why is personal branding such a complex topic?

For starters, branding is a complex topic. When it comes to organizations, people frequently confuse identity with branding. It seems to take a long time before they understand that a logo is not a brand. Logos are merely representations of the brand relationship between the people and organization. Basically, when people see the logo, marketers want those people to attach the context of a fulfilled brand promise to it.

It’s easier to understand than it sounds. Before the BP logo was covered in oil, the BP sun thingy was meant to symbolize its commitment to clean alternative energy.

This brand promise has since imploded because the relationship cannot sustain the weight of reality. Green is great, except when it's blackish brown and covering animals.

Before you can understand personal branding, you have to understand organizational branding. Ironically, most personal branding coaches teach organizational branding and pass it off as personal branding. So you might know more than you think.

The downside is they lied. Personal branding doesn’t work like organizational branding. Personal branding is trickier because it can’t do what organizations do. Organizations get to “make up” their original brand promise out of thin air. People don’t.

Whatever came before you has already established the foundation. You’ve been working on it since the day you were born, with people reinforcing it along the way.

This can be good or bad for you. (I think it's bad, but that's another story.) But regardless of whether you think it's good or bad, it lays the ground work. And that makes changing yourself a bit more complex than buying new sunglasses.

Sure, some personal branding folks often suggest you chop all that baggage off (which isn’t impossible) and then pick one of a handful of models to reinvent yourself. Let's look at the three most common.

1. Be who you are (assuming you know who you are).
2. Be who you want to be (assuming you know what that is).
3. Be what will get you ahead in your career (a very popular premise).

On their own, none of these ideas really "work." They don't work because, generally, people are trying to build their personal brands around outcomes they want (much like companies do). That's not about who you are or what you are. That's about what you want.

Considering three common models for personal branding.

1. Transparency. That one is easy to dismiss. Just ask Tony Hayward what he thinks about it. Or Mel Gibson? Or Tom Cruise? I’m a truth nut, but let’s face facts: transparency can be stupid.

2. Vision. It sounds really good, but it doesn’t consider that most people don't work to be "who" they want to be. They work for "what" they want to be. And that means bending to the audience's will much like some organizations try to do. The real problem with number two is that "who you are" and "what you are" might not be the same thing. A little transparency, much like the aforementioned, will crash all your hard work down.

3. Act The Part. Right. Ask Howard Stern about that one. He often found himself caught between the person he plays on the radio and who he was at home. Those lines blurred, even in public. Take a look on Letterman, 1987; 1993; 2009.

4. Reputation. I didn't list it before because it's not a personal branding model. It is, however, an alternative. This concept tosses out personal branding and attempts to focus on reputation. Simply put, reputation is based on not what you project, but what you do. It has some merit, but advocates neglect that reputation is easily distorted.

People are too complex for personal branding.

The book I've been working on for some time is about this very subject so I tend not to write about it too much here. But given the confusion being created in social media (a place where some people try to reinvent themselves based on social media advice), I thought I'd toss out two ideas. The one above and the one below.

Most people are not cognitively trained to accept how complex other people are.

We tend to remember about others what we share about ourselves — tiny slivers. I was reminded of this simple fact when I shared my A7X review. One of my cousins said she would have never guessed I like metal. (I like many things, across all spectrums, from classical to hip hop.) Another friend said the same. But another, who doesn't know me as well, was not surprised.

So, only two-thirds ever got some unspoken memo. What does that mean?

It's subtle, but it means two-thirds have a slightly changed perception about me, maybe favorably because they like A7X too. For a bigger audience, an equal number of tiny positive, negative, or neutral reactions. And that's just about music.

Let's say we add any number of more personal topics (religion, politics, economics, philanthropy) or minute-by-minute details (ranging from whether I go to the gym or if I accept an invitation to speak in Asia). All the while, keep in mind that masses of people will only remember one or two details (positively or negatively) about you.

So what do you get? A crapshoot. Even if you pick what you share carefully, most people will only remember what fits with a central theme that they create for themselves. You cannot control it. It is what it is.

Political candidates know this all too well. If one of them says they like A7X, people might accept it. But if the other one says the same thing, people might reject it. But more than that, it isn't limited to public figures. It could be anyone. Imagine knowing a few more details (likes and dislikes) about an elementary school teacher. Parents might not be too comfortable learning about a hidden piercing or radical political viewpoint or some other "weirdness."

There's the rub.

If we accept personal branding or reputation is more than identity (styles, clothing, etc.), then the only choice is to find common ground between who you are and what you are and what you are doing and where you are doing it while maintaining authenticity at the same time, assuming you don’t work for a company that is fundamentally different from you.

Do you know what? That's not personal branding or reputation at all. It's something else.

It's called character. And it cannot be taught as much as it can be learned. And, if you ask me, people ought to pay much more attention to that than the labels others might thrust upon them. Branding is better left on the doorstep of organizations.

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Thursday, August 5

Being Transparent: Sometimes It's Stupid


It has been months, but people are still talking about it. Last year, Spirit Airlines floated the idea of charging a "passenger usage fee" to cover the costs associated with buying a ticket. Specifically, it would charge a $5 to $10 fee if you booked a flight anywhere other than a Spirit Airlines ticket desk.

This year, Spirit Airlines was considering the opposite. The new fee idea charges passengers for getting help from one of its employees (hat tip: Andrew Weaver. It's not all that novel, given that some airlines already charge as much as $25 to place a reservation over the phone.

And while it might not happen in the near future, CEO Ben Baldanza is not morally opposed to charging a fee to use the bathroom. The justification for it, and all the other charges (including carry-on bag charges and seats that don't recline), was to keep the base fairly low.

Refreshing Transparency Or Just Plain Stupid?

Baldanza clearly has the fragile brand theory on his side. He's always inventing ways to make what most people consider a necessity much more like a luxury. He's unapologetic for it.

Spirit Airlines is fighting to be the low fare leader and treating people a little less favorably than parcels on a FedEx flight. Ultimately, customers have a choice. And some people, reportedly, like it.

This truly blows some holes in many modern business theories. Spirit Airlines customers aren't looking for relationships. They aren't looking for comfort. They aren't looking for anything but the cheapest possible fare to get from point A to B.

The online poll on USA Today Travel shows 59 percent of the people think it's a bad idea; 23 percent think it's a good idea. And 19 percent think it's a good idea if it speeds up boarding because many delays are created by carry-on luggage. The irony there is that the airlines industry created the carry-on problem because of mishandling bags and charging to check them.

Here's the thing. Any company can do whatever it wants, and most of the backlash seems to be from concerns that other airlines will adopt policies that seem idiotic on their face because a heavy enough percentage of people are willing to go for low air fares.

At the same time, Baldanza has succeeded in ginning up publicity in his quest to make Southwest Airlines look like a luxury flight. It's crazy, but seems to be working for him and his airline.

Free Publicity For Silly Ideas Works Until They Stick.

However, there is a caveat. What works today will eventually not work tomorrow. Right now, given the economy, people are hustling and bustling to cut a few dollars anywhere they can. Once the economy stabilizes, assuming the federal government cranks back its aim to make profit a sin, then price conscious flyers might not be so keen on the Baldanza concept.

If that happens, even if all airlines followed Spirit Airlines' lead, Baldanza will be remembered for the push to make everything an extra. Personally, I'm not sure if such a concept is sustainable. Nobody really wants to need a day of recovery after a flight.

Overall, customers want a fair price for what is being promised. The problem for the airline industry is they struggle to keep their promises because most of them allowed price wars to be their only product differential. Add to this the constant pressure for catering to people who don't care about anything but price, and sooner or later you run out of things to cut.

It seems to me that Baldanza is smart for the short-term gain. But over the long haul, people will remember him as the guy who considered charging for bathroom privileges. In a down economy, people might take it. In an up economy, he's a jerk.

Sometimes being transparent is stupid. I don't mean in an intellectual way. I mean in a long-term strategy kind of way. Not all ideas need to spill out of your mouth. And not everything that spills out of your mouth needs to be published ad nauseum, especially when people figure out Baldanza is trying to find a way to charge you for not speaking to a live person or charging you for speaking to a live person. That is his real dream come true.

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Wednesday, August 4

Confusing Students: What People Learn From Social Media Pros

For all the advice given by social media pros, did you ever wonder how that information is translated by the recipient? I do, every single day. I do, because what is being taught and what is being learned are often two very different things.

To illustrate, I'm paraphrasing a tip list from someone relatively new to social media. He has been following several top social media writers, heard several speak, and read a few books. I don't want to call out the author nor the advisors this time around. The lesson, if any, is meant to serve future speakers, perhaps giving them a glimpse of what people sometimes take away.

What People Learn From Social Media Pros.

• Determine your brand or personal brand and how you want to present yourself online.
• Scan the Web for communities that consist of people you want to reach with your message.
• Join the communities that would be most advantageous for you, even if it is off your site.
• Teach other people in your company to do the same, not just the social media leader.
• Become the image you want to portray and establish a code of conduct you won't break.
• Pay attention to how other people in the community behave and behave like they do.
• Look for people in pain and frustrated to create an immediate meaningful connection.
• Become a more active participant in those communities, saving sales for when they count.
• As you establish authority, introduce value, insight and direction to those you choose to engage.
• Give the people who help you rewards, resolutions, gifts, and shoutouts to increase engagement.
• Earn connections through mutually beneficial collaborations and become advocates for each other.
• Everything you do online should include involvement maps that lead to business objectives.
• Develop programs that make people come back for more and more on a daily basis.
• Become a resource and authority to your community, ensuring they come to you for advice.
• Recognize any contributions and reciprocate, especially among those who are notable.

What do you think? Is this the intent of the instruction? And if not, how do you go about changing it?

I might mention that I've touched on some of these bullet points too, but the echo back is patently strained. I also have some thoughts about how to better align some of them, but it would take considerably more space than a single post.

Any other thoughts I have about this list, I'll include as I have time to address them in future posts. Right now, I'm much more interested in what other communication pros think. If you don't want to leave a comment, drop me an email.

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Tuesday, August 3

Going Social: Goodbye Citizen Journalist, Hello Journalist Citizen


Forbes isn't the first to flip the switch, but it is one of the most interesting and sure to get attention. Starting today, according to the Business Insider, every reporter will now be required to have his or her own blog. They won't be alone either.

"Moving forward, when I look at an operation like Forbes, I look at a mixture of a full-time staff base and hundreds and hundreds, if not thousands, of freelance contributors," Lewis D'Vorkin had previously said. "It's a blend."

It makes sense, sort of. For the last several years we've seen the resurrection of the citizen journalist. And for the next couple of years, we might see the rise of the journalist citizen.

What Will The Journalist Citizen Be?

In April, Ike Pigott explored the possibly of organizationally embedded journalists. But journalist citizens might be decidedly different. They won't be embedded in organizations. They'll be embedded in our social networks and, perhaps, actively participating, promoting, sharing, and investigating story leads.

They already are, you know. Early last year, we worked on a brief for several major publishers to do exactly that. It was the first phase of what might later become the journalist citizen. Specifically, they wanted to know how to tap into stories that people in social media find interesting and then give those stories a spin, upgrading those ideas with access to better, harder-to-reach sources.

The next phase is closer to what Forbes is proposing to do (but they were not one of the publishers who received the brief). Journalists will actively participate and promote the stories they create (or each other's stories maybe). They'll have to.

Although most emigrating print publishers are standing firm that reporters will be subjected to eyeball quotas (a standard practice among broadcasters), one wonders if there will be a certain amount of pressure upon the participating press to build their own "tribes" around the subjects they cover. Or perhaps, they'll discover, there are no "tribes."

Online participants are very much as free as ever. Long before anyone called them tribes, we called them nomads, whom marketers and media hope to capture as they wander their way to watering holes for individual conversations, family gossip, fun, and games.

Perhaps more disturbing than journalists splitting their time between investigative work, objective journalism, social networking, story promoting, and defending whatever it is they lend to a topic, will be the increasing loss of objectivity as they serve to cater to what some might call temporary tribes (even if there aren't tribes).

I cannot stress temporary enough. You see, unlike real tribes, they move on if you write about the same thing too much or too many different things. It makes sense that marketers would attempt this balancing act. They wear the agenda on their sleeves, and its name is sales no matter how many relationships or niceties they offer up. There is nothing wrong with that.

But the media? If the agenda isn't to tell us what we need to know whether we want to hear it or not, then what is it?

Don't get me wrong. I think the move by Forbes is the direction that communication is moving. But what strikes me is that if newspapers and magazines have finally surrendered to social media, what valued proposition will they bring to the table, especially if they support a platform that allows hundreds and hundreds of freelancers to submit stories that compete with their staff? And, equally interesting, what will the value proposition be for them?

After all, there is always reality. Reality suggests that if newspapers and magazines recognized that being relevant online was more difficult because it forced them to compete with television and radio news in the same space, imagine what it might mean if they have have to compete on a daily basis with blogs too.

It seems to me that things will be getting messy. Imagine consumers being asked to choose from the people in the field who have blogs (experts), journalists who have blogs (professionals), citizens who have blogs (casual observers with sometimes very good ideas), and, well, public relations pros with blogs. Huh. I'm okay with that. It's stranger than fiction. How about you?

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Monday, August 2

Splurging Consumers: Are They Cash Crazy?

Consumer Spending
Bloomburg Businessweek calls it the new abnormal. Americans, they say, are broke and depressed but also buying $3 lattes and waiting in line for iPhones. The compelling Businessweek cover story provides plenty of examples, including a woman who explained how tough the economy was while splurging in Las Vegas.

A few numbers behind the article citing the new abnormal.

• Businessweek cites the success of companies like Apple, Starbucks, Mercedes-Benz, and BMW.
• 17 percent of consumers are spending outside their means; 20 percent struggle with needs and wants.
• 20 percent of Americans have bought something in the last 30 days they wouldn't have 6 months ago.
• 51 percent of Americans have fallen behind on their their annual savings plans, but still splurge shop.

Some of these percentages certainly seem far off from the report that The Futures Company put out last year. That think piece, A Darwinian Gale, said that consumers had reshaped their entire thinking, with an emphasis on responsibility, vigilance, resourcefulness, prioritization, and network orientation. In March, another study from Euro RSCG Worldwide, said there were more prosumers than ever before.

Have consumers gone crazy, trading in the "new" society for schizophrenic shopping?

They aren't crazy. Devin Leonard touches on some of it in the podcast, but doesn't go deep enough in understanding consumers, especially those who are broke or feel stressed by the lackluster economy and low consumer confidence.

It's not impulsive shopping as much as it is backlash against the pressure of isolation, intense savings, and preparation for the worst (which he does say). But even more importantly, most consumers, especially those who had not faced any hardships in previous economic downturns, splurge now and again because they remain unbalanced.

This is one of the reasons most financial planners I know always suggest building entertainment in to a budget, no matter how small that budget might be. Simply put, it's little luxuries (scalable to our financial picture) that help lift our spirits up and keep us moving forward. It may also represent a re-prioritization to a mindset that tip earners tend to have all their lives.

Flexible ShoppingSince tip earners have unfixed incomes, they tend to avoid fixed expenses such as magazine or newspaper subscriptions. They also cut back on other fixed expenses as they can, such as grocery shopping or gas consumption or premium cable. Why? So they feel like they have more control over their daily finances even if that means they purchase something some would consider "luxurious."

The same psychology played out during the Great Depression. Despite being the worst economic collapse in the nation's history, this era also helped launch the major motion picture industry. The same psychology prompted hungry children in Europe during World War II to buy candy instead of soup if they happened to find a few cents. And the same psychology may have even been present during the Renaissance, when theater for the masses become an important part of life.

For a few minutes (if it's a cup of coffee) or a few hours (if it's a movie) or a few weeks (if it's an iPad), consumers can take the edge off a repressive economy and chronic uncertainty. And the need to do so grows exponentially if they didn't balance out their finances prior to the crash, which increases the pressure to splurge rather than spend a smaller amount on themselves every week or every month.

Marketers can empower consumers with fewer fixed costs.

Does this change how consumers spend? Sure. From a big picture perspective, it skews purchases much like the Businessweek article says. However, it tends to be for very different reasons. This behavior isn't a new abnormal. It's very normal. And as long as consumers can limit the pendulum swing between feast and famine, it might even be healthy too.

The question marketers ought to be asking themselves is how do they adjust their message to meet the mood? Some might make the mistake of cutting prices. But others will likely find some lift in removing "fixed" costs and giving consumers more flexibility.

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Sunday, August 1

Speaking Simply: Fresh Content Project


I read a quote this weekend that stuck with me. I believe in the concept anyway, but quotes are always fun to find in order to share what you think with someone else's articulation of it. Here's the quote...

“Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity.” — Charles Mingus

The next five fresh picks are much like that. They provide smart and simple solutions, like why the Old Spice guy might have really worked or why thinking of your blog as a loss leader is a bad idea. They show you why the media isn't trusted all the time, why chasing comments is silly, and why algorithms that include the "number of followers" don't tell the whole story.

Best Fresh Content In Review, Week of July 19

How to Reproduce the Old Spice Video Phenomena.
I'm not a fan of the Old Spice euphoria nor the Old Spice cynicism, but John Bell did one of the best jobs asking the right questions. Was it successful? What about it made it so? And did it drive sales? But more than that, he warns people away from trying to duplicate the tactics. (Elf Yourself is no fun for hotdog buns beyond a chuckle.) Like most great advertising, it was breaking the mold that captured our attention (even if some ideas were in play before). With exception to not noting that the social media element was part of a larger campaign, including a huge coupon drop, we need more thinking like this.

Blogs As Loss Leaders.
Chris Brogan debunks some of the myth behind considering a blog your or your company's loss leader. He suggests looking at it differently, as part of the entire value chain. While the value chain may have different parts that cary more financial weight than other parts, they are just as important. If you want an analogy to help this sink in, think of your car having a value chain. The seat might not have anything to do with getting you where you need to go, but leather sure feels better while you're getting there.

Social Media is the Servant of Strategy, Not the Master.
Adam Singer considers the problem with comment counting, which was all the rage in determining (gasp) influence a few years ago. (If you had more comments to count, you counted more. Whatever.) Singer then goes on to point out something we can never hear enough of — drive outcomes instead. As he mentions, comments don't do much for businesses. And not all comments happen on blogs anymore, anyway. That doesn't mean to discount them. Just keep them in perspective.

The I-Dumbing of Journalism.
Ike Pigott shares one of the most blatant and silly stories sensationalized by a media outlet. The reason is clear enough. It was a ratings period and the Oklahoma City television station knows that fear for family drives eyeballs. So it spiked up a story on audio files that kids download to make them high and how these sounds are, basically, the new gateway drug. Pigott debunks a small part of the story simply by noting that binaural or "two-tone" sounds are easy enough to come by. Telephone tones, among them.

My Followers Are Bigger Than Yours: On Twitter, Quality Beats Quantity.
Ian Lurie has been doing an unscientific study by tracking what happens after someone retweets his posts. He noticed that people with a moderate following actually generate more responses from their RTs than people with larger followings. No surprise, he also found spammy people do not generate as much interaction, engagement or link clicks because they have already established a reputation for sharing junk. Ergo, the only place spammy guy has reach or influence is on algorithms.

Want to review more Fresh Content picks? Click on the Fresh Content label or join the Fresh Content Project on Facebook.

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Friday, July 30

Finding Truth: The Death Of Hyperbole?

For several years now, dozens of companies have released scores of research studies that have captured the fancy of mainstream media for headlines. I've mentioned it a few times over the years.

In May, MyType surveyed over 20,000 of its users on Facebook to determine that iPad owners are generally selfish elites and their critics are independent geeks. Never mind that in another part of the study, the independent geeks self-scored themselves higher on being susceptible to greed. And never mind that MyType, a Facebook application developer, created the segments "by selecting only people who matched multiple profile characteristics."

That might be a naughty note in research circles, but it didn't stop a few papers and magazines from jumping at the chance to publish the findings, without the methodology. One exception, one month later, was the Guardian. It took more interest in John Grohol's article that called the MyType research bad science.

Balancing Popular Polls With Real Research.

Things are changing. As more celebrities join social networks, they tend to grab up positions of popularity over the once socially famous (assuming they aren't automated celebrities). As expert authorities increase their participation, quick psychology surveys by software developers lose any feeling of real importance. As agencies play a greater role in developing online content, what once was considered creative loses some of its luster.

It will take more time, but the media will eventually participate in the shift. As publications compete for the same base of subscribers, it might be in their best interest to police themselves against those that grab up nonsense. Specifically, those that benefit from pushing catchy headlines one day, may find themselves making the headlines the next (much like the Guardian did to several by pointing out which ones published the MyType research). Even those that maintain popular blog listings might be turned off, eventually.

The point here might be that this signals a restructuring over who and what can hold people's attention. And the good news is that some patently bad ideas might be vetted. The not-so-good news is that some networks might be more dismissive of those little gems that bubble up from time to time in favor of sticking by bigger brands. We'll see.

In the meantime, expect more research to be unraveled by people who practice science and psychology (and other fields) . While people who are authorities in those areas aren't always right, they're welcome to point out what others might be doing wrong. And that, we can hope, will be worth coverage by the media.

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Thursday, July 29

Trapping With Inaccuracy: Plagiarism Days Are Marked

The invention of the Internet
Ever since Bob Conrad, author of The Good, The Bad, and The Spin, shared the Wired story about Las Vegas-based Righthaven, we've been wondering about the future of a few "experts."

According to the article, Righthaven has filed "at least 80 federal lawsuits against website operators and individual bloggers who’ve re-posted articles" originally written by their first client. If the infringements are settled, they are worth between $1,500 and $3,000 apiece. If they go to litigation, they could be worth $150,000 or more.

Trapping plagiarists with inaccuracies.

While reposting complete articles is obvious, reframing ideas are not always so obvious, as Ike Pigott illustrated last March with his post Attribution is the Sincerest Form of Flattery. And again, comparing this story with this story. Are there similarities?

It might be more crystal clear if the screen scrapes were even more blatant. And one way to make that happen might be to borrow a page of out The Trivia Encyclopedia by Fred L. Worth. Worth lost his $300 million lawsuit even after inventors of Trivial Pursuit acknowledged that Worth's books were among their sources*, but recently a Wall Street Journal writer wasn't so lucky.

The Wall Street Journal recently reported on one of its contributors. It seems two "Agenda" columns by Bill Jamieson, executive editor of the Scotsman, sourced information without crediting the source. (Hat tip: Regret The Error). The reason it was obvious was because Jamieson had apparently scraped up errors from those sources.

*Interestingly enough, the only reason Worth lost his lawsuit is because the judge had ruled that facts cannot be copyrighted. However, while I'm not an attorney, I wonder if a better counter argument could have been that embedded errors aren't fact at all.

Avoiding the accidental pickup.

I like to give people the benefit of the doubt. So let's assume most people want to write something remotely original, but also want to use the openness of the Web to color their stories with other ideas, thoughts, and opinions. The easiest way to do that is by following some simple guidelines.

• Some facts don't have to attributed. In the States, we'd all be hard pressed to attribute who first told us that the United States declared independence on July 4, 1776.
• Other facts, however, deserve to be attributed anyway. And since we have the ability to link back to the source, readers might benefit from the source.
• Opinions and original thoughts are always attributed. Sure, there are times when two people stumble upon similar topics, but certain phrasing, analogy, and novelty might reveal a different conclusion.
• Full story screen scrapes, even with link backs, are a very, very bad idea. It neglects the rights of the publisher, which is why more firms like Righthaven are very likely to become the publishing industry's new friend.
• Attribution is the sincerest form of flattery, just as Pigott said. It's in your best interest to credit original thought because those credited are much more likely to promote the content.

For some of us, it all seems pretty basic. For others, it seems much more challenging, but not for long. If firms like Righthaven become a profession that publishers and even bloggers embrace, it seems very likely that a few popular names in social media and communication might come crashing down at $1,500 to $3,000 per infraction (or more).

You see, there has been another trend noticed among communication blogs that started about two years ago. As some became more popular, their propensity to attribute has shrunk. Author Geoff Livingston mentioned it last year. And since I built out my reader to the size he sported then, I've seen more "coincidences" than I care to share.

Wednesday, July 28

Telling Fibs: Why BP Photoshop Blunders Are Big News

BP Photoshop Photo
With Tony Hayworth, CEO of BP, stepping down to be replaced by Robert Dudley in October, many people have the same question. Can Dudley turn BP around, clean up the Gulf, and restore the company's reputation? At the moment, the answer is maybe.

October is a long time away, which may give Dudley a cleaner start than if he took over today. But the real challenge for BP isn't a change in leadership but a change in company culture. As one of the world's largest energy companies, that won't be an easy task.

The smallest fibs, not the largest, can be the most telling.

BP's liberal and enthusiastic use of Photoshop, not once but twice, became one of the biggest stories because the fibs were so terribly small. And that might mean something beyond the Photoshop lessons some very creative folks have left sprinkled around the Web. (It's hard to pick a favorite.)

• The company's code of conduct is being ignored.
• The culture has accepted a standard of deceit.
• The smallest of details don't really matter at all.

Years ago, when I was working on one of my first political campaigns, we discovered that the primary opponent had lied. Not only did he not have a degree in the field stated on his literature, but the college he had attended never offered such a degree.

Upon discovering this, we began a much more rigorous investigation better known as opposition research. Of about twenty points made to convince people that he was the best candidate, about 14 of them were either made up or patently false.

One fib on its own might have been forgiven by the public. But anything more than a dozen fibs was a lofty number. It didn't matter how small some of them seemed to be. Tell enough half truths, spins, and misstatements and any brand or reputation will eventually collapse. There seems to be a mountain of them related to Deepwater Horizon and the Gulf Coast oil spill.

Have you ever read the BP Code of Conduct? It begins as "one of the world’s leading companies, we have a responsibility to set high standards: to be, and be seen to be, a business which is committed to integrity."

How do you feel about that statement today, knowing that the company culture seemed to have embraced a general rule that tiny lies, little breaches of protocol, and miniscule lapses in following safety standards were somehow acceptable. As long as the paperwork looked good and nobody was hurt, did it really matter? It mattered on April 20.

On some things, it's better not to give an inch. The poorly done Photoshop pictures weren't being sent out as cover shots for the annual report. They were being provided as part of a slew of shots meant to convince us that BP was on top of the problem.

Obviously they weren't. The problem is on the inside.

*The above commenter photo can be found on Gizmodo, posted on July 22 by Jeremy "Bobafett."

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Tuesday, July 27

Interpreting Influence: Intuition Over Infatuation, Part 2


The reason I initially chose the title of this two-part post was to illustrate that we can be infatuated with someone, but that doesn't mean they necessarily have influence over us. I like many people online, but I don't always agree with them. And generally, the people I like, don't always agree with me either.

Our influence over each other is confined to the validity of our ideas at any given moment. And what makes that a stronger relationship, in my opinion, is mutual respect because neither of us is so enamored with each other that we fawn over every word. It's an unspoken, sometimes subconscious, connection. The ties that bind are ideas, not personality, popularity, or any other measure.

This post is part two of a two-part post. If you missed the first one, it's called Interpreting Influence: Intuition Over Infatuation, Part 1. It includes a link to an extensive education study commissioned by The Wallace Foundation. This post is an extension of my own conclusions in applying it to the discussion of online influence.

What Is Influence, Anyway?

1. A power affecting a person, thing, or course of events, especially one that operates without any direct or apparent effort.
2. An individual or group's power to sway or affect based on prestige, wealth, ability, position, or presentation.
3. A person who exerts influence such as friends, family, co-workers, and customers.
4. A power such as the moon and the stars, divine intervention, genetics, or law of nature.

The order of most definitions provides an insight into the meaning of the word, with the most weight being given not to people but to the ideas, actions, and reflections they make. Ideas are powerful, which is why some men with mistaken perceptions or malicious intent have worked diligently to control them.

During one of my presentations earlier this year, this became an important part of the introduction. Every innovation in communication to help messages, thoughts, and ideas spread has led to advents in how to manage, control, manipulate or snuff them out.

However, as influence applies to the concept of collective leadership, the power outlined in the leading definition is derived by a singular individual as much as it is derived from inherent truths that already exist within a public. And even individuals in definition 2 or 3 stand the best chance to succeed when they adhere to that principle.

Six Considerations Of Influence.

1. Ideas. If someone proposes a good idea, performs an action worth following, or reflects the feelings of an audience, then the idea (assuming it reaches the right mass) will be propelled forward. Consider how many ideas you have shared over the last few months and how frequently or infrequently you remember the originator of those ideas.

2. Authority. People in positions of authority have a degree of influence. A boss can set expectations. A legislative leader can pass laws. An expert might be given our attention. However, even people in positions of authority rely on the ideas they propose and the outcomes they produce. Allowing them to influence us is voluntary, even when it doesn't feel that way.

3. Persuasion. Novelty can influence us to look, but only in that it attracts our interest. The fictional Old Spice man didn't influence anyone as much as he attracted attention. It was creative, clever, and funny. Did it compel, convincing men to start using specific scented body washes? Maybe. Persuasion is powerful, but it relies on ideas to remain sustainable. (The ads also had a reward mechanism. They made us laugh.)

4. Proximity. People who are closer to us — friends, neighbors, family — can be influential, even if that influence is unseen. Over time, people tend to adopt the behaviors and beliefs of those they associate with on a regular basis, even if that proximity is not geographical. And yet, individuals don't necessarily set the stage as much as the collective of a community.

5. Popularity. Most social media measures record popularity. And while it is true that popularity can propel a message forward, giving it the reach it needs to impact more people, popularity on its own doesn't hold much influence. Consumers snub reviewers all the time to make movies into blockbusters because the collective ideas of many consumers might outweigh their popularity or authority.

6. Reinforcement. There are positive and negative reinforcements that can influence behavior. I've seen it in labs. It is one of the few actions that can trump ideas, good or bad. In a social network setting, for example, a popular person or someone with authority might influence someone to do something for a reward, whether it be affirmation or a prize (reward). As a negative reinforcement, it might be banning them from a site or the threat of diatribe (fear).

But the question I keep asking is does this type of influence come from the individual or the action itself? When I was in college, teaching mice to press a bar for water, it wasn't difficult to figure out that I did not influence the mouse. The design of the experiment and reinforcement did. (Surely, you would laugh at me for presuming I had influence over the mouse.)

What About Reputation?

Reputation fits in rather nicely. Yesterday, I mentioned that people did not march to Washington D.C. for Martin Luther King, Jr. They marched for civil rights and social equality. However, I am sure there were a few in the crowd that would have marched specifically to see him, no matter what the reason.

It seems to me, for those few, his reputation was based on not much more than the collective ideas and actions he had taken prior to that point. But what made him a great leader, much like many great leaders, is that his greatest ideas didn't make him influential. His influence — the ability to refine and reflect what was already in the American psyche — made him great.

Others, unlike King, rise to greatness only to see their ideas do not produce stated outcomes. They quickly wither. And as they wither, some of them begin to rely on other mechanisms of influence, with fear being the most commonly employed.

What's The Point, Anyway?

I don't have to be right, but what I do hope some people get out of these two posts is that real influence doesn't come from the number of followers, retweets, or any other popular online measurement. Real influence comes from something that connects two people — a shared idea (even if one person has refined it).

And while other factors, like those noted, can be influential or sometimes work in tandem, they also tend to be more fragile on their own. If you want to influence people with positive intent, the best course of action is to pay careful attention to what they already think and then refine and reflect their ideas back to them. Just don't make the mistake of believing that makes "you" an influencer. If you think that, there is a different word. It's called narcissism.

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Monday, July 26

Interpreting Influence: Intuition Over Infatuation, Part 1


There are dozens of influence measures on the Web. Most of them are reliant on some sort of algorithm. There is the Fast Company measurement disaster. Klout, which suggests Mashable is more influential than the President. TweetLevel, which even places me above him too.

When it comes to understanding influence, social media has certainly taken the wrong turn in understanding it. The continued attempt to make the unimportant look important is preposterous. Influence isn't about people or clicks or retweets or even trust. It's about ideas, actions, and reflections. And there is a new study that supports this observation.

A Study In Collective Leadership.

The study doesn't come from social media. It comes from education. It took six years to complete. It's 338 pages long.

Commissioned by The Wallace Foundation and conducted by the University of Minnesota and University of Toronto, "Learning from Leadership: Investigating the Links to Improved Student Learning" (Hat tip: Genesis) makes this case in a different area of study.

In studying 21 different leadership styles, the researchers discovered that collective leadership by school principals led to improved student performance. Collective leadership is a style that evaluates various stakeholder points of view, and then reflects those ideas back on the people where they came from (sometimes in a refined state that goes beyond what stakeholders imagined).

In other words, people don't follow the "principal" as much as they follow their own "ideas" as refined and retold to them by the principal. Not surprisingly, this is supported by long understood empirical evidence that groups and subgroups yield better results when they have a stake in the direction.

In education, the best performing schools all have principals who observe this leadership style, alone or in concert with other styles. And what this means is that the principal's "influence" has nothing to do with the principal, but the ideas and direction they give back to their audience.

The outcome is better performing students, supported by participating parents and dedicated teachers. And, when you think about it, it might even reveal why private schools tend to perform better than public schools, even though private school teachers are paid less.

What History Teaches Us About Influence.

Apply this thinking to history and you'll find the same conclusions. When leaders first rise to power, it's often on the promise of pushing the ideas of the community to the forefront of the agenda. Unfortunately, however, once many leaders are elected or assume power, they change the paradigm. They trade community ideas in for popularity, authority, or some other agenda.

Good leaders or bad leaders, the story always plays out the same. Stalin rose to power on collective ideas from the community, but then ruled with individual authority that refused to listen anymore. So did Napoleon. So did Hitler. So did many others.

There are some who didn't mistake influence for popularity or authority alone. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, George Washington, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Martin Luther King, Jr. all earned respect and influence because they remained committed to the collective ideas of their community. They were influential because it was never about them.

Ergo, people did not march to Washington D.C. for Martin Luther King, Jr. They marched for civil rights and social equality.

Sure, popularity or novelty can sometimes increase the reach of a message. But, at the end of the day, if the most influential person you know tells you to punch yourself in the head ten times, most people wouldn't do it, with rare exception. What exception? The same ones employed by those dark leaders mentioned — the positive or negative use of authority in the form of fear and consequence or praise and reward.

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Sunday, July 25

Flipping Social: Fresh Content Project

Fresh Content Project
When you talk about communication in a social media space, the conversations tend to shift toward social media. Even when they do, I always try to remind fellow professionals, friends, and students that social media topics often have lessons that transcend online communication. Replace the nouns and most posts are about communication.

That's what you'll find in this week's lineup of Fresh Content picks. The context might be mostly social media, but the lessons are embedded in communication. Take Jason Falls's post as a prime example. Before social media bubbles, there were people who would invest half of their day in professional organizations and feel pretty good about their illusionary places of power as industry leaders. There is nothing wrong with that, unless you want clients too.

Best Fresh Content In Review, Week of July 12

Get Out Of Your Comfort Zone, Or Else.
Jason Falls offers up a hard reminder why working too much or too long inside the social media bubble can dampen potential. With social media experts constantly talking to themselves and praising each other's ideas, there's still the rest of the world that doesn't know much about social media or communication. He then shares two encounters to illustrate his point. The greater majority don't follow the rules that communicators have erected and some never will.

A Cupful of Wisdom.
Finding an analogy between social media and the World Cup, Ike Pigott points out the obvious. There is a tendency for social media pros to game their stats but never score a goal. Sure, all those blind follows look good on spreadsheets much like being the shots-on-goal leader. But unless there is a conversation that leads to something tangible, your communication metrics aren't much more than the sound and fury, signifying nothing.

Social Media is the Servant of Strategy, Not the Master.
Writing a guest post for Jay Baer, Mike Cassidy shares his insights into why he sometimes feels that social media pros place too much emphasis on allowing the cart to drive the horse. He has a point. Embracing social media doesn't have to mean organizational change as much as it changes the organization. The difference might be subtle, but it's an important one. Social media can do an organization good, but not at the expense of a vibrant internal community.

The Internet Is A Kennel.
Ike Pigott explores minion behavior that sometimes occurs within the organizational structures that develop within social media. The minion's reward for following a chosen one is quite clear. In exchange for social servitude, minions receive attention, transference, respect, and a sense of belonging. And when the chosen one is attacked, the minions band together to assault the so-called attacker, even if there wasn't much of an attack to speak of.

The Million Dollar Pickle.
Communicators tend to be great storytellers, but that doesn't mean all stories are successful. Sometimes the stories we tell are memorable, but no one remembers the teller. It happens all the time in advertising, with one of my favorite examples being the company that ran a dazzling spot on cat herding. One week later, everyone remembered the commercial. No one remembered the company. Roger Dooley's pickle story is just as powerful.

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Friday, July 23

Trading Pace: How To Increase Productivity Without Being Hasty


Jeremy Sherman, evolutionary epistemologist studying the natural history and practical realities of decision making, has some interesting insights into decision making. And how, as things continually speed up, expediency becomes driven by an emotional aversion of hard work. He's partly right, perhaps with the wrong word.

He really means hasty, with all the spoils of an over-eagerness to act. As Benjamin Franklin once coined, haste makes waste. It's even the theme of a hit song by 10 Years.

How to recognize haste with online communication.

• Speed reading our critics to avoid anxiety or confrontation.
• Focusing on feedback only by those who appear to have amplification.
• Writing short, incomplete posts to flood the net with more of them.
• Reorganizing social network lists in order to only listen to a few voices.
• Using SEO shortcuts to attract people, regardless of content relevance.
• Following folks who are popular as opposed to those with quality insights.
• Tweeting conversations when you had enough thoughts to leave a comment.

And the list goes on, online and off. As Sherman says in an article on what he calls disappointment psychology, trading in a fast set for proper form at the gym is counterproductive. There is no benefit, other than our brain telling us to meet the quota without doing the hard work.

Another great example, especially interesting for anyone who tracks feedback across the Web, comes from a different article by Sherman (and it doesn't sink in to the murky pool of politics like the first one). He suggests people tend to speed read criticism because they are threatened by it. Again, he's partly right.

So what to do about it? Anyone working with marketing and communication on the Web knows that expediency acts as a magnet. Shorter posts that require little thought are the bread and butter of many popular bloggers. The author and readers have an unspoken contract to be marginally beneficial provided there isn't much thought involved. And that's fine, I suppose.

But what about feedback? Are you shortchanging the opportunities that present themselves from voices that aren't amplified by 10,000 readers? I know people who do. Some don't engage critics for fear of giving detractors validity. Some don't like confrontation, preferring to prop everyone up. And others simply try to define which voices are more important. Whatever.

How to avoid haste and increase productivity online.

• Speed read for validity, with a sensitivity to your emotions.
• Read every comment, looking for ideas not personality.
• Write tight, but make sure to fully flesh out the ideas.
• Keep up with friends, but allow other voices into the conversation.
• Never measure for traffic when trying to construct relationships.
• Give everyone a chance to demonstrate they add value.
• If you don't have time now; save and circle back when you do.

Sometimes people ask me how I can be active online and still make deadlines (my time online is miniscule compared to some of my colleagues who have 10-100 interactions more than I do). Still, I have found ways to maximize participation. It has everything to do with developing systems to improve productivity. And most of them work for me, but they might not for you.

An offline solution, for example, is finding time to read books. It took awhile to figure it out, but I have about 15 minutes to half an hour after dinner (usually on a reader). And, I have about the same amount time before bed (thanks to audiobooks).

Online, it's much the same. I can look at 100 or so posts from a reader list of 250 every day, skimming for substance. I flag those that seem to be a cut above and then read them deeper, never mind who wrote them. If I have time, I comment on them, but only if I can add value. (For example, I just cut a paragraph on speed reading critics, meaning to save it for another day).

The takeaway here is simple enough. Look for ways to improve productivity without being hasty. It's the most valuable tip from Sherman, summed and paraphrased: When you shortchange the journey, you may not reach your destination. And even if you do, you won't value it as much.

The same holds true for leaders. Look for ways to make the team more productive, but don't risk quality by forcing production.

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Thursday, July 22

Spooking Social Media: Ad Agencies Wake Up


One creative, interactive YouTube campaign and, suddenly, everyone's concerned about advertising agencies moving into social media. Some agencies, like Interpublic's Universal McCann and Publicis Groupe's Vivaki, are already building dedicated divisions.

It could reshape social, with some people concerned about the silos and buy-ups that I mentioned what seems like 100 years ago. Except, back then, I was talking to recruiters who "got" social media well before public relations professionals and communicators. Jim Durbin was listening. He recently outlined how social media stacks up in the job market.

Are There Consequences If Agencies Dominate Social Media?

If David Teicher with AdAge is right, it could lead to more silos (subdivisions) and shortcuts (blended earned/bought media). If Dave Fleet is right, it could lead to short-term spike campaigns (viral) and sub-optimal results (popular channel focus). If Todd Defren is right, then agencies will put campaigns before relationships.

They're all good arguments, but it really depends on the agency. I've worked with enough agencies that have created public relations divisions to know. Some shops integrate communication. Other shops dismiss the division as an "also have" service.

The same thing happened when agencies decided it was in their best interest to buy up Web design companies (and direct mail shops before that). Some shops develop great integrated campaigns. Other shops have an abundance of strong and weak components, skewing to what they know best. Almost all of them place an emphasis on creative over strategy, which might be why Old Spice lost some shine.

What about public relations? I might teach public relations classes, but I don't always understand public relations firms' business thinking. Many jumped on social media because they were threatened by losing some of their retainers to social media specialists and because media seemed to be losing its relevance.

Sure, a few have a passion for the space. But otherwise, it was a knee jerk with the argument that they were better at "relationships." Yet, if that is so, then why all the focus on finding influencers to replace journalists? That is what many of them are trying to do, which basically means they couldn't care less about the individual customer. That is the whole premise behind why some firms use Radian6, isn't it? Find out which commenters have juice?

It's Not Who Owns Social. It's Who Owns Strategic.

Communication strategy, not social media, is what will shape the future of communication. Someone has to stand at the helm of any communication program, and that usually means the marketer (internal) will most likely dictate the team, skewing to the areas of expertise where they feel they need the most help.

And if they need help with strategic direction, you can bank on the idea that whomever is given the strategic lead will decide the rest of the marketing mix — what percentage of the budget goes to marketing, advertising, public relations, or social media.

Next year, when one of my students in public relations asks me what they need to focus on to have a successful career in a communication-related field, I won't tell them to sharpen their social media skills (although they will need to know it). I'll tell them to sharpen their strategic skills because the people outlining the strategy are the people driving everything else.

When you think about it, that really levels the playing field, doesn't it? Every public relations firm, advertising agency, and social media boutique eventually develops at least one or two strategists (and sometimes they are not who the client thinks). If you ask me, strategy dictates whether a campaign will succeed or fail, not the tactic (social media) everyone has their eye on.

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Wednesday, July 21

Writing Stronger Leads: Six Variations For Story Openers


The most important paragraph of any story is the lead. So it stands to reason that the opening graph of any post is equally important, with an emphasis for SEO. Doubly so if you only syndicate a fragment of the post to feed readers.

But how important is it?

Let's say you're a journalist looking for a story. You don't have much time. Deadlines are looming. You scan leads (assuming you can get past the headlines)...

"To support the marketing and branding strategies of its wholesale High Speed Internet (HSI) customers, Verizon Global Wholesale is expanding its portfolio of services to include two white-label, or non-branded, HSI options." — Verizon

"RMT, Inc. (RMT), a leading energy and environment company, is expanding its services to the Federal market to offer complex remediation, energy management, and renewable energy solutions." — RMT

"Everyone looks better in butter, and thanks to Midwest Dairy Association a fun new Facebook application brings a popular state fair tradition – butter sculpting -- to life." — Midwest Dairy Association

Nothing, except maybe a blurb about turning your Facebook profile picture into a virtual butter sculpture. I almost tried it, but then remembered I don't look good in animated yellow. That, and unlike the cool Mad Men Yourself app, there is no preview before you opt in.

No matter. At least I read past the first grammatically challenged graph.

The problem, it seems to me, is that while most journalists learn to write several types of leads, most public relations practitioners (many of whom now write posts) are only taught to write one type of lead: "who, what, when, where, how" lead. Unfortunately, the inverted pyramid lead is also the most boring. They tend to be especially boring for posts too.

Six Alternative Leads For Posts And Openers.

1. Immediate Identification Lead. The immediate identification lead relies on subject prominence. This works well for stories, but not so well for posts unless paired with a unique action. Sure, name prominence is important. However, if a popular headline is paired with an action that matches everybody's headline (Lindsay Lohan Goes To Jail), you become one voice in a sea of millions.

2. Delayed Identification Lead. If nobody knows who you are or what you are talking about, it's even more important to place the emphasis on the action. The action will draw the reader into the story, assuming it has some news value. A weak action is what broke the read for RMT. Several prominent bloggers have done this to gain a readership on the front end. It's not "who they are" that attracted people. It's "what they do" or did.

3. Summation Lead. Anytime you have a complicated story, it's best to sum up as much information as possible. I'll probably use this variation when I write about CitizenGulf's Day Of Action next week (on a different site). The event has several talking points so, unless an alternative lead strikes me, a summation lead makes sense.

4. Creative Lead. Unusual leads work best for stories with some element of novelty. They don't always work for news releases, but the Midwest Dairy Association is an adequate example. It's too clunky to be called solid writing and too gimmicky to be very creative, but we did read past the first sentence. Of course, we might not have if that release was a post. It requires sharp writing.

5. Pyramid Lead. Public relations professionals who send out feature releases use them now and again. But mostly, magazine reporters are much more inclined. Rather than invert the pyramid, they lead with a small detail within the story and then expand from there. Pyramid leads tend to work best with imagery: sights, sounds, smells, tastes.

6. Promise Lead. Promise leads usually appear in releases about a study and they work great for posts with an educational slant. People who write about communication frequently use them, prosing up from what you might learn from the post. In this case, I'm merely supporting the promise that I tucked inside the headline, briefly explaining why you might care.

Nowadays, people place significant attention on headlines, but they don't always pay enough attention to the opener. I invest as much as 20-30 percent of my total time into the lead. If I don't invest that much time when I start, I usually revisit the lead when I finish. By that time, a new lead has usually developed.

Where the application of a better leads pays off is on search engines that share one line of content and third-party syndication readers. The latter, which is a choice some bloggers make because they want readers to visit the site, forces the story to live and die based on the lead. My advice is syndicate the full post. Not only will your story have a second chance as they scan subheads, but it will likely increase your subscription rate.

Interestingly enough, copywriters are the only pros who sometimes have the option to skip the lead, assuming the headline is strong enough. For everything else, it's all in the lead.

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Tuesday, July 20

Warring Tribes: When Playground Fights Go Public

another blog drama
Ike Pigott had the best analysis of a recent online spat between two consultants. What's not to love about any post that resurrects Spike the Bulldog and Chester the Terrier?

I won't be so graceful. The brush-up between Kami Huyse and Peter Shankman is intriguing because it ends with two kids meeting up after school in the playground, encircled by their pre-pubescent friends, stomping their feet, clapping their hands, and chanting "fight, fight, fight!" It didn't start that way, mind you. Confrontation never does.

One tweet. One post. One response.

If you don't want to follow the links, it sums up in two or three graphs. Once upon a time, the most popular kid in school, Chris Brogan, bought shiny suspenders. So that made it fashionable for other kids to talk about their suspenders, belts, and fancy elastic bands too. Shankman included.

So, one day, Shankman shared the news about his shiny suspenders at PE class. After reflecting on this, Huyse went into the music room and said talking about what holds your pants up, on its face, is pretty silly. Then some kid, who probably doesn't have anything to hold his pants up, told Shankman that Huyse was talking smack about him. Shankman called her out and pushed her down. Dazed, Huyse said she wasn't talking about him, only suspenders (but what if she was, so what)?

Whack. Slap. Poke. Push.

And then, wow, everyone jumped in: Joe Ciarallo, Geoff Livingston, Aliza Sherman, Doug Haslam, Warren Whitlock, and a few others, not counting the comments, tweets, updates, and whatnot. It also doesn't count the dozen or so other posts that didn't make the first few pages of Google. It doesn't matter that Shankman later said he was being sarcastic.

That's how these spats are measured. Not in physical blows, but rather Google juice and search returns. The end result? Well, once Ciarallo threw in a third-party punch, all the positive ties between Shankman and Huyse (and there were a lot) shrank in importance. And that's why, these little spats, which on their face are pretty silly, were taken so seriously.

When Playground Fights Transcend Into Tribal Warfare.

Most playground spats never get all that much attention, but a few spiral out of control, including some that ended with the threat of legal litigation and the promise of physical violence (one of which we turned over to authorities). In such cases, perhaps the epic moniker might fit, with retellings of how Sparta dragged in the whole of Greece to defeat Troy.

The interesting thing about real tribal wars, however, is that most soldiers on the field don't know the circumstances. They simply raise their home banner and press forward with erroneous conjecture. And yet others jump in for any number of reasons much like Agamemnon did. He didn't care about the petty dispute as much as the excuse to gain more power.

If you are new to social media, you might as well know there is no way to avoid disagreement. Sooner or later, there will be a flare up. And with that in mind, here are a six friendly reminders that may help you keep playground antics in perspective.

1. Never write anything without the explicit understanding that you are inviting comment.
2. Never assume omitting a name will exempt you from a reaction by those who own the action.
3. Never respond to feedback when you are emotionally charged by the unexpected critique.
4. Always remember that the Internet isn't a private call. It's a party line and people take sides.
5. Always expect disagreements to eventually become a headline where you never imagined.
6. Always remember that, in time, most people regret what happened prior to the resolution.

Keep these tips in check and most discussions, even heated ones, will remain discussions. It's generally only the overreactions that attract the most attention to move friendly banter into something more akin to kennel noise or all-out tribal warfare.

Case in point, I can blame Brogan for everything that happened between Shankman and Huyse because it's funny to do so. I also know that Brogan can take a joke (if he even sees it). There won't be a flare up, let alone a tribal war. And even if he did comment (which is rare), it would probably be light.

Now, if only those who envy his suspenders would learn that lesson too. Then civility, even with debate, might be plausible. Yeah, right.

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